It’s that time of year again when thoughts turn to true love and finding happily-ever-after.

Most of the time, life is not a fairy tale. Unless, of course, you’re reading the original fairy tales, which are darker and more gruesome than the Disneyesque versions. Sometimes real life feels a bit too similar to those.

Whether you like your fairy tales “Grimm” or prefer the sugar-coated version, there are plenty of fractured fairy tales to pique your imagination. Some follow the original plot closely, while others take one character and imagine a completely new adventure for them. Some fractured fairy tales stay true to their dark predecessors, while others lead to a happily-ever-after.

There are many delightful and wicked ways to fracture a fairy tale! Here are a few suggestions, for all age levels, if you’d like to give this micro-genre a read: